


Wonderstruck

by rfh7wr2fe8



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Gift Fic, Prompt Fill, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-03
Updated: 2017-10-03
Packaged: 2019-01-08 12:15:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12254196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rfh7wr2fe8/pseuds/rfh7wr2fe8
Summary: Originally written for dapromptexhange's Fill-A-Thon under spcmermaid on tumblr.Prompt:After the Inquisition has disbanded and life returns to normal, Rhys finds himself wonderstruck Evangeline stayed with him all this time.





	Wonderstruck

**Author's Note:**

> For Daniel: I'm sorry I introduced you to a rarepair. Thanks for being a pal.

_Peace_.

Rhys and Evangeline hadn't stopped running since they started. They hadn't stopped fighting, hadn't stopped working to right past wrongs, and now there was finally peace.

Though he and Evangeline returned home after Corypheus' defeat, when The Exalted Council brought news the Inquisition had been disbanded, Rhys knew for certain they wouldn't be called back into service. The great evil was vanquished, Divine Victoria abolished the Circles, and he was finally free to give Evangeline the life he meant to several years ago. A quiet and simple life away from the world.

He was lying in bed reading. Evangeline fell asleep in his lap little more than an hour ago, her back pressed to his chest, her temple resting against his chin. Rhys noticed he stopped reading some time ago to watch her breathe. The butterflies had long flown away, but there was something about her that remained mesmerizing to him. And he suspected it would never leave.

Not that Rhys ever wanted it to. Far too much of his happiness was tied to these enchanted moments. He couldn't imagine a world where her love didn't fill up his entire being and then spill over like a fountain. The butterflies were long gone, but something far better remained.

Rhys watched as Evangeline stirred. He parted his hands from the book he was holding as she stretched, and gave an amused smile at the noises she squeaked out. Evangeline blinked a few times before accepting her fate; she was awake again. Naps always made her feel more tired somehow. At least, she mused, she didn't spoil sleeping again tonight.

"Why, Evangeline," Rhys chided her, "I don't think I've ever seen such a sour look on such a pretty face." If she would have looked up seen his grin, she would have smacked it off his face.

"I like to save them for when they're truly necessary," she closed her eyes again and snuggled back into his arms. Rhys laughed quietly at her sarcasm and thankful she wasn't in a genuinely foul mood. He planted a kiss on the top of her head.

"I suppose that's one way to let me know you have no interest in my reading."

"If you would choose books in languages I could read then perhaps I would stay engaged." Rhys chuckled again. Evangeline shifted lower and turned over, laying her head on his stomach. Rhys sat up to allow her to wrap her arms around him. Rhys returned the embrace and played with her hair. He felt himself being swept away by that feeling again. The content security of Evangeline's touch battling with the anxiousness of...something.

Rhys tried to shake off the bad. There was no more bad. Or maybe there was so much bad for so long his subconscious was now forever marked by it. But there was so much good too.

\---  
After the flight to Andoral's Reach when the Circles fell, there was a maddening uncertainty. The Templars knew where the mages were barricaded _but_ _never came_. At least not in the span of time anyone anticipated.

Evangeline kept herself quite busy. Rhys wasn't sure if it was to compensate for being a Templar herself or because she couldn't stand to not be helping, but she had a servant's heart, that was for sure. She volunteered to keep watch and Rhys found himself staying up the nights she was on duty waiting for her to return. Which made them both useless the next day when she couldn't sleep either. The stress was tearing them both down.

Duties may have pulled them apart but Rhys and Evangeline sought each other out as much as they could. Their first kiss was a mess of nerves, like flush-faced teenagers, but as she grew comfortable being venerable with him, Rhys came to see her be most affectionate.

Evangeline elected to share a cot much to Rhys' delight. The few nights a week they were able to sleep next to each other was some of the best sleep he ever had. Filled with gentle, intimate touches but never pushing over the edge. Rhys would hold Evangeline close and listen to the rhythm of her heartbeat. They needed the security they found in each other the most.  
\---  
About a month after the vote to split from the Chantry they decide to leave. Rhys had a difficult time wrestling with it all. How could he justify his reasoning to elect a war and then abandon it? But he couldn't stomach the thought of war. Rhys lost too much already and the Maker stood there with His hand out demanding more. How many innocents, apprentices...hell, even Templar-Recruits who just want to do the right thing, would have to die to satisfy the bloodlust of a few?

He stood on the battlements with Evangeline as she stared off onto the horizon. The sun was beginning to set and might have been quite picturesque had the mood of the entire fortress not been one of in-fighting and desperation. There wasn't enough food to feed everyone. There was no hope, and even the luster had begun to fade from those most passionate for freedom.

Evangeline knew what she needed to do, but that didn't make the decision any easier.

"I couldn't ask you to leave, however I don't know why you would stay with the rebellion," Rhys' voice cracked only just above the winter wind blowing in her ears. She was almost startled by its softness.

"I told you I would I go with you."

"That's a hollow reason."

Evangeline cupped his cheek and looked at him with soft eyes. "I love you _and_ I will go with you."

Rhys melted.

He pulled her into a tight embrace. _She loves him_. "I love you, Evangeline." It's barely a whisper.

They stood there wrapped in each other for a time. Rhys' eyes were shut, taking in the scent of her hair. This wouldn't be easy, but he would build a future for her that will make everything worth it.

That night, their last behind the defensible walls of Andoral's Reach, he made love to her. Her first, and Rhys swore to himself, her only.  
\---  
Upon reaching southern Orlais, Rhys and Evangeline took up jobs as farmhands. The arrangement was more than agreeable; they slept in a dormitory stable with the other workers on top of a small salary they stashed away. Rhys was clearly less accustomed to manual labor than Evangeline, but since she had been a Templar it was a believable enough lie to say Rhys had been part of the clergy displaced in the rebellion.

He did fairly well passing himself off as a mundane, but habits were habits and the other workers grew suspicious. Knowing their time was running short, Evangeline attempted to scrounge up lost family and contacts to find a safer place to live.

Eventually their secret did get out. An accident occurred and had Rhys not healed the man he likely would have died. While everyone was grateful Rhys intervened, the fact remained he was an apostate, and it was with great reluctance the lord of the manor turned them out. Evangeline was more indignant about the turn of events than Rhys was. He found it quite touching she felt it necessary to defend his honor.  
\---  
They weren't back to sleeping in inns for long, however. An old retired Chevalier, who was once brothers-in-arms with her father, offered one of his lands. He had no children of his own, and granted Evangeline and her companion could live there if they would work it, but the house stood unoccupied for years and needed considerable repair.

Construction was less work than reclaiming the soil from years of disuse even with the civil war halting the flow of supplies. Rhys wasn't sure it was an undertaking that would ever end. However, he discovered he rather liked task of gardening; they could hardly call their output a proper farm. Years spent in the Circle didn't provide for opportunities such as caring for fledging crops, and he was tickled over how proud it made him. As he tended to the garden he spoke to the plants like one would speak to a small dog. Evangeline would just smile and roll her eyes.

When the last of the repairs had been completed, they celebrated. Evangeline, finishing off the bottle of wine they shared, straddled Rhys lying on the floor. His normally straight-laced "Duchess" (a loving tease of her good breeding) acting without restraint was a rare and hilarious sight indeed.

Evangeline dropped the bottle with a loud clink and proceeded to grind her hips against his almost a little too roughly. _"Est-ce que tu vas continuer à me regarder, ou vas-tu me baiser?"_

Rhys burst into laughter at her unexpected vulgarity. He grabbed Evangeline by the hips and gently rocked in sync with her. "You turn me on."

Evangeline brought her face down to his, a curtain of her hair swallowing the light of the room. _"Show me."_  
\---  
"What are you thinking about?"

Rhys shook himself back to reality. "What?"

"You went very still all of a sudden. What are you thinking about?"

Rhys smiled and curled a strand of her hair around his finger. Thin streaks of silver were beginning to show. "You."

Evangeline snorted looking up at him. "Me?"

"You could have done anything. Why stay?" Now she looked at him like he'd grown a second head. "You're educated, a skilled swordsman, and beautiful to boot," he qualified. "If I were in such a position where I could have the world in the palm of my hands I don't know that I wouldn't take it."

Evangeline cocked an eyebrow at his dramatics. She was hardly the Empress of Orlais, though she would admit life had dealt her a much kinder hand. "Why is it so easy to believe I could have run off and done any number of things, except the one thing I wanted?"

Rhys felt himself at a loss. "I...I suppose...well," Rhys scratched his beard while he searched for the words.

Evangeline pushed herself upright and tucked her legs underneath her. She took both of Rhys' hands in hers and forced him to look her straight in the eye. "I absolutely believe it is the Maker's will that I am here and that we are together. I was given a second chance at life to spend it with _you_ \--And before you start thinking I'm only your partner because of divine providence remember I _chose_ you, Rhys. I chose you every step of the way and I choose you everyday." Her tone was gentle, but still firm. There would be no arguing her loyalty.

"Would you marry me?"

Evangeline laughed, slightly bewildered. "Why? We don't have children. We built this house ourselves. Everything we have, our whole world, Rhys, we already have it together, I...I have no title; what could you gain?"

Now it was Rhys' turn to be baffled. "This has nothing to do with...titles..." he gesticulated, "can't I marry you because I love you?"

Evangeline reclaimed his hands and interlaced their fingers. She offered him a soft consoling smile. "Of course you can." She looked down at their hands and rubbed her thumb across his skin. "I would do anything for you. But being married won't make us _more_ together."

Was it that easy for her to see right through his anxieties? It wasn't fair how she could pinpoint the cause of a sensation he himself couldn't place. Evangeline leaned forward and pressed their foreheads and noses together. "I'm sure there's no harm in letting the Maker know I intend to be your keeper for the rest of my days," she breathed. She brushed her lips against his before capturing him in a delicate kiss.

"The next time we go to the city," she paused between kisses, "we'll stop at the chantry...and we'll get married...and when we come home...we'll consummate that marriage."

"Now you're just trying to make me feel better."

"Is it working?"

Rhys squeezed her tight and chuckled into his kiss. Perhaps there were still butterflies after all.

**Author's Note:**

> You ever been so bitter about life you only want to write for rarepairs like some kind of shipping Santa Claus? Well send me your requests kiddos because that's exactly what I'm doing with my life now.


End file.
